Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Splice (2010)

"We crossed the line..."

My wife really wanted to see "Splice" when it came out in theaters, but nothing about the movie really interested me all that much initially. Recently I had the opportunity to watch it and I can safely say that if you didn't see it you aren't missing much. Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrian Brody) are geneticists or in this case "splicers" - scientists that work on a cellular level combining the DNA of various creatures. Their mission is to use these slug-like creatures they've created, Fred and Ginger, to harness a particular enzyme that can be used to possibly cure all sorts of human related diseases. Elsa and Clive are hoping to move to the next level and begin using human DNA in their experiments when they are told they must concentrate only on Fred and Ginger and harnessing the enzyme/compound that they have been working on for months. Later that night, in the heat of the moment Elsa locks herself in the lab and combines human DNA with a host of undetermined DNA samples to create a wholly new life form. This life form is Drinn and she has untold evolutionary capabilities...and a long tail that has a huge stinger on the end of it. As you can imagine things don't go well for these two Scientist who crossed the line and sacrificed morality for success.

I sometimes hate giving you these little plot summaries as it is difficult to judge what you need to know versus what you might like to know before you see any film. "Splice" had some really cool moments and at times the story really worked but most of the time it was a lot of science that I didn't understand and a creature who doesn't become scary or interesting until the last 15 or 20 minutes of the film. I also thought Sarah Polley wasn't hardly as good in this as she was in 2004's "Dawn of the Dead" where she carried that film as one of the main leads. Adrian Brody, who for me is pretty consistently good in whatever he is in, carried this picture for me. The special effects are OK but in this day and age its nothing you haven't seen before. The trailer implies this to be more of a horror film and yeah, I guess it is...only because you can't classify it as anything else. If you are curious and feel the need to ignore everything I've told you, I would rent this one before you buy. 2/5 -andy

PS. I always encourage you to read our reviews and then go ahead and see the film (for as cheap as possible) despite what we think and then let us know what you thought. We love your participation and your comments!!

SECOND OPINION

I liked it better the first time around when it was called "Species". Brody is the only thing that holds this movie together. Watch only if you have nothing else. 1/5 -tom